Manmohan, the butcher of India's national security
Mar 03, 2014
When India celebrated the new year in 2012, most people still expected a UPA3 to be formed after the 2014 polls. Narendra Modi was yet to win his third term as Gujarat Chief Minister and kick start his campaign for the post of Prime Minister.
At that time India’s top officials who were in charge of India’s internal and external security were Army chief General VK Singh, Home Secretary Raj Kumar Singh and R&AW Director Sanjeev Tripathi.
This troika maybe together knew more about India’s security problems than the other top troika of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Home Minister P Chidambaram and Defence Minister AK Antony.
Most bureaucrats and generals either lead a quiet retired life or choose to be in the good books of the ruling establishment and get plum and cushy post-retirement posts. Very rarely do they take a plunge directly into the murky world of politics.
However as we enter into the General Elections, an extremely curious thing has happened. The 2012 troika of VK Singh-RK Singh-Tripathi have all joined the BJP! That is quite an unprecedented event.
At that time India’s top officials who were in charge of India’s internal and external security were Army chief General VK Singh, Home Secretary Raj Kumar Singh and R&AW Director Sanjeev Tripathi.
This troika maybe together knew more about India’s security problems than the other top troika of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Home Minister P Chidambaram and Defence Minister AK Antony.
Most bureaucrats and generals either lead a quiet retired life or choose to be in the good books of the ruling establishment and get plum and cushy post-retirement posts. Very rarely do they take a plunge directly into the murky world of politics.
However as we enter into the General Elections, an extremely curious thing has happened. The 2012 troika of VK Singh-RK Singh-Tripathi have all joined the BJP! That is quite an unprecedented event.
What is it that these three together know that they would make this move? Is it because the national security of India has been so badly compromised that they want a say in improving things when the next government is formed?
Retired defence officers do join politics, but former chiefs doing so is rare. Rarer is anyone from the shadowy R&AW wanting to go high-profile in the political world.
Former R&AW official RSN Singh and retired Major-General GD Bakshi are two other prominent people who have been blasting the current state of security in India.
While we may never know what exactly goes on behind the scenes, what is happening in plain sight itself is quite disturbing.
Manmohan has proved to be an extremely soft PM and has shown absolutely no spine when it comes to dealing with Pakistan and China. The Pakistani ceasefire violations have increased and Chinese soldiers regularly coming into Indian territory is ominous when you look at the 1962 debacle.
More disturbing is the fact that the IB and CBI being pitted against each other in the Ishrat Jahan encounter case. Even if Ishrat was innocent, then Manmohan takes the major blame as it was the IB which spearheaded the operation and the IB reports to the Centre and not to Modi.
Antony is also on his way to becoming India’s worst Defence Minister. When the Pakistan Army entered Indian soil, he shielded them saying “intruders in Pakistani uniform”. He retracted, but the damage had been done.
He totally mismanaged the VK Singh date of birth affair and a newspaper main story insinuating a coup was the absolute low point of his tenure. A Naval chief has also resigned over submarine mishaps.
Instead of taking moral responsibility himself, Antony immediately and willingly accepted Admiral DK Joshi’s resignation. Under Antony’s rule all of the defence forces problems seem to be brushed under the carpet and that does not augur well for the future.
Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde put his foot in his mouth when he took up the issue of saffron terror and even his own party distanced itself from him. (That’s in public. In private a WikiLeaks document also said that Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi echoed his views.)
The above mentioned RK Singh also accused Shinde of stopping the Delhi Police from interrogating a businessman with ties with underworld don Dawood Ibrahim in the IPL scam.
When the Patna blasts took place and there was an assassination attempt against Modi, Shinde was happily attending a Bollywood musical launch a few hours later.What else can you expect from a man who calls an anti-India terrorist as “Shri Hafiz Saeed”?
What else can you expect from a man who likens anti-rape agitators with Maoists? That Manmohan is spineless and a mere remote control is written enough.That he has presided over the most number of scams in Independent India’s history is also well documented.
That he is no economic whiz either has been proved beyond doubt.
Retired defence officers do join politics, but former chiefs doing so is rare. Rarer is anyone from the shadowy R&AW wanting to go high-profile in the political world.
Former R&AW official RSN Singh and retired Major-General GD Bakshi are two other prominent people who have been blasting the current state of security in India.
While we may never know what exactly goes on behind the scenes, what is happening in plain sight itself is quite disturbing.
Manmohan has proved to be an extremely soft PM and has shown absolutely no spine when it comes to dealing with Pakistan and China. The Pakistani ceasefire violations have increased and Chinese soldiers regularly coming into Indian territory is ominous when you look at the 1962 debacle.
More disturbing is the fact that the IB and CBI being pitted against each other in the Ishrat Jahan encounter case. Even if Ishrat was innocent, then Manmohan takes the major blame as it was the IB which spearheaded the operation and the IB reports to the Centre and not to Modi.
Antony is also on his way to becoming India’s worst Defence Minister. When the Pakistan Army entered Indian soil, he shielded them saying “intruders in Pakistani uniform”. He retracted, but the damage had been done.
He totally mismanaged the VK Singh date of birth affair and a newspaper main story insinuating a coup was the absolute low point of his tenure. A Naval chief has also resigned over submarine mishaps.
Instead of taking moral responsibility himself, Antony immediately and willingly accepted Admiral DK Joshi’s resignation. Under Antony’s rule all of the defence forces problems seem to be brushed under the carpet and that does not augur well for the future.
Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde put his foot in his mouth when he took up the issue of saffron terror and even his own party distanced itself from him. (That’s in public. In private a WikiLeaks document also said that Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi echoed his views.)
The above mentioned RK Singh also accused Shinde of stopping the Delhi Police from interrogating a businessman with ties with underworld don Dawood Ibrahim in the IPL scam.
When the Patna blasts took place and there was an assassination attempt against Modi, Shinde was happily attending a Bollywood musical launch a few hours later.What else can you expect from a man who calls an anti-India terrorist as “Shri Hafiz Saeed”?
What else can you expect from a man who likens anti-rape agitators with Maoists? That Manmohan is spineless and a mere remote control is written enough.That he has presided over the most number of scams in Independent India’s history is also well documented.
That he is no economic whiz either has been proved beyond doubt.
But what is required is a thorough investigation of how Manmohan and his team have totally butchered India’s national security.
India’s future depends on it.
India’s future depends on it.
The author is a Bangalore-based journalist and blogger.
He blogs here.
No comments:
Post a Comment